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Topic: NANY 2013: Please post requests! (Read 9776 times)

I'm trying to work up to a pledge for the NANY 2013, but am fresh out of idea's for projects.Things are quite busy in my head, so I'm not expecting to have idle-time there for idea-mulling

That's why this request:

Please post request(s) here for an application/tool you need, and either don't have the time or the skills to create yourself (skills as in not being a coder).

The application/tool should adhere to the NANY rules, as in being 'New', etc., etc.

As this is a general request, for any potential pledger, I won't limit your ideas to any area, so just drop ideas here, and hopefully there's a coder that can take the challenge o pledge and release for this NANY 2013 installment.

For those interested: I'd be happy to take a project that would span a couple of weeks worth of work, but of those weeks, only the evenings/nights are available, as I do have a daytime job (programming and programming-related).I'm not into games development or graphics-work/web-design, that's just not my cup of tea.I do code in Java, C#, AutoIt3, Delphi, and a few other languages, but that shouldn't limit your scope.My nickname at work is 'Tim* the Toolman'

Hallo. I only just got the idea to click on the master NANY thread. Is this offer to get an app still open? (Homer) Free Coding Lunch... (/Homer) (As opposed to "Coding Snack", did you see my post on that a while back?)

I have one idea that's a bit too far for a Coding Snack but it could work as a Coding Lunch with I think some partial commissioned code already if I didn't hose myself doing my recent system cleanup.

Taking a ticket for the First Come First Serve Dept,

--Tao

Edit: I am posting too fast today and getting topics all in the wrong order. Heh however I'll leave this post here because it's always fun to beg for free stuff! (And it really is a fun app idea!)

Naw, it's a little bigger than a snack. And I'm semi amnesiac, so I don't recall the results of our earlier chat if any. It can wait... it was just a text converter from the ebook site produced by my treeDB program into standard code layout used by the Zen CSS project, and theoretically the result is a turn-key "7 click" entire website using any Zen CSS graphics layout. I was getting half way there on a commission exactly when I lost my job.

What I'd like to see: a simple map-creating program. Map as in real map, roads and bridges. Why: paper maps can sometimes be inaccurate, so I need to make corrections, or I may need to annotate, such as add buildings, with notes about them. (The notes should be hideable, so they don't cover everything up, or insertable at odd angles so they fit between roads.)Method: scan an existing map to create a picture file. Set it as a background. Draw features on top of it, adding/correcting as you go. The background of course would have copyright issues, but your hand-copy should not, especially since the entire purpose is to create something different. Obviously it would take too long to hand-make an entire city, but that is not my need. Typically all I need is a neighborhood. Print the custom part, leaving the scanned part behind.Drawing features: It is important that the "pen" be able to draw with standard map symbols. For instance, an unpaved road should be two lines running parallel, not a single black line. A paved road, two lines, with black bars between them, spaced. You know, you've seen maps. (Freebie maps lately are useless, as roads and rivers are all single lines, the only way to tell them apart is the roads are completely covered over in numbers, which hides any other possible useful detail. This is a big reason I'd like to make my own local maps.) Building symbols built-in (resizable squares, rectangles, etc.) And of course thin-line drawing, and new symbol creation.You may say, just use GPS. OK, but I want something I can keep for later, complete with notes, and go back and add to it later. And print out to give to others, say with driving directions on it. How do you do that on a GPS?Don't recommend SmartDraw, as that is not the KIND of maps I mean, and it is huge.Creating/editing a road should be simple and intuitive, for example: connect two endpoints using the "unpaved road" pen, then using a "pusher" or "bulldozer" cursor, nudge the road into curves. Sort of like putting a bead chain down on a table-top and pushing it around with your finger. Not infinitely segmented, but finely enough that the end result is reasonable. (Alternately, click along the road to create hinges, then select each in turn and pull it to the place needed. Probably easier to code. In fact this is what the circuit-board program ExpressPCB does. If that program permitted picture background and road-line drawing, plus more simultaneous color choices, it would already do what I need.)Since no one on planet earth is offering this kind of map-specific drawing program (and even if a massive graphics program could do this, I'd prefer something easier to learn and use and compact; but I don't think they can do this) this is an opportunity for some enterprising coder.

What I'd like to see: a simple map-creating program. Map as in real map, roads and bridges. Why: paper maps can sometimes be inaccurate, so I need to make corrections, or I may need to annotate, such as add buildings, with notes about them. (The notes should be hideable, so they don't cover everything up, or insertable at odd angles so they fit between roads.)Method: scan an existing map to create a picture file. Set it as a background. Draw features on top of it, adding/correcting as you go. The background of course would have copyright issues, but your hand-copy should not, especially since the entire purpose is to create something different. Obviously it would take too long to hand-make an entire city, but that is not my need. Typically all I need is a neighborhood. Print the custom part, leaving the scanned part behind.Drawing features: It is important that the "pen" be able to draw with standard map symbols. For instance, an unpaved road should be two lines running parallel, not a single black line. A paved road, two lines, with black bars between them, spaced. You know, you've seen maps. (Freebie maps lately are useless, as roads and rivers are all single lines, the only way to tell them apart is the roads are completely covered over in numbers, which hides any other possible useful detail. This is a big reason I'd like to make my own local maps.) Building symbols built-in (resizable squares, rectangles, etc.) And of course thin-line drawing, and new symbol creation.You may say, just use GPS. OK, but I want something I can keep for later, complete with notes, and go back and add to it later. And print out to give to others, say with driving directions on it. How do you do that on a GPS?Don't recommend SmartDraw, as that is not the KIND of maps I mean, and it is huge.Creating/editing a road should be simple and intuitive, for example: connect two endpoints using the "unpaved road" pen, then using a "pusher" or "bulldozer" cursor, nudge the road into curves. Sort of like putting a bead chain down on a table-top and pushing it around with your finger. Not infinitely segmented, but finely enough that the end result is reasonable. (Alternately, click along the road to create hinges, then select each in turn and pull it to the place needed. Probably easier to code. In fact this is what the circuit-board program ExpressPCB does. If that program permitted picture background and road-line drawing, plus more simultaneous color choices, it would already do what I need.)Since no one on planet earth is offering this kind of map-specific drawing program (and even if a massive graphics program could do this, I'd prefer something easier to learn and use and compact; but I don't think they can do this) this is an opportunity for some enterprising coder.

Wow. That's beyond a NANY app. My suggestion is to use one of the Google - Yahoo - Mapquest Apps and then save it as a picture and then draw on top of it like "you want to go here". The universal map data itself takes millions of $ to get complete.

I draw fairly small maps at times for my work - I use graphics programmes, and do trace from older maps - some of which have copyright. If it's only for your own purposes I personally wouldnt worry about copyright - if for publication, you should get permission (= pay an arm & leg to original publisher). They actually have little quirks in maps that they can use in court to prove that you copied their maps ;-)

I know a guy who creates detailed maps for orienteering via copying/tracing and some surveying/field work - he uses some type of cad software - well 'cad' is part of the name - I can check and get back to you - but it is fairly expensive AFAIK.

These days you can download a lot of maps - contour maps of the States, UK etc. I'm not familiar with these in terms of format etc. Probably a lot of GIS based info.

Have you looked at openstreetmap.org ?

OpenStreetMap is a free worldwide map, created by people like you.The data is free to download and use under its open license. Create a user account to improve the map.

A project idea for someone; anyone! I'm not a coder, though I might get a batch file to work, maybe. Anyway, the idea: how about a front end or package wrapper that would allow a user to take a program that doesn't normally start with Windows and wrap it in a shell that would allow a user to specify that the program should in fact run with windows.

For example, one of the DonationCoders made me a wonderful little program called DoubleClick, which converts the scroll wheel to a double left mouse click when pressed. I would like to convert or modify this program (as well as a few others I have) to start-up when Windows does, without having to remember to run each one separately. Any ideas or suggestions?

A project idea for someone; anyone! I'm not a coder, though I might get a batch file to work, maybe. Anyway, the idea: how about a front end or package wrapper that would allow a user to take a program that doesn't normally start with Windows and wrap it in a shell that would allow a user to specify that the program should in fact run with windows.

For example, one of the DonationCoders made me a wonderful little program called DoubleClick, which converts the scroll wheel to a double left mouse click when pressed. I would like to convert or modify this program (as well as a few others I have) to start-up when Windows does, without having to remember to run each one separately. Any ideas or suggestions?

A project idea for someone; anyone! I'm not a coder, though I might get a batch file to work, maybe. Anyway, the idea: how about a front end or package wrapper that would allow a user to take a program that doesn't normally start with Windows and wrap it in a shell that would allow a user to specify that the program should in fact run with windows.

Not sure whether this would work at all, and maybe it's just a crazy idea, but it might be a useful little helper: What about a "second mouse pointer agent"?

It allows to temporarily switch to a second mouse pointer on the screen, leaving the first (or main) mouse pointer where it is (and I think, it is important for the visual feedback to really have two mouse pointers rather than having one pointer hopping around; however, they need not be movable simutaneously, at least not for my purposes).

The switch-over between the pointers can be triggered by a definable keyboard shortcut, maybe also a mouse key or a combination. Ideally (and that was my original idea) it is also possible to connect a second mouse to the computer (thanks to USB, this shouldn't be a big deal any more), and this one would automatically be assigned to the second mouse pointer (or even a third, fourth... ;-).

It can restrict/define the area where this second mouse pointer can be moved.

Purpose: I frequently have these mechanic actions where I need to repeatedly do a certain procedure, consisting of some mouse clicks, fill-ins etc. in one application and then clicking a button or field and maybe typing an ALT/CTRL key sequence in another application. It's not really that much of a deal (or in parts not consistent enough) that it would be worth struggling with a macro application. And actually, having a second mouse that would allow me to do the one click in the other application seems to be all I'd need to do it really efficiently without having to move forth and back and to target with the mouse all the time.

In the days of touch screens, this suggestion might appear somewhat outdated, because you would think you just do this "separate click" on the touch screen. But my experience at least on my Win7 desktop system is that I rarely use the touch functionality of my desktop monitor for various reasons, if I want to work efficiently. And using it then for this one click would again mean that I have to take my hands away from keyboard and mouse and to target at the right spot of the screen, which just makes the process slower and more laborious.

I've been wondering whether this functionality isn't available as a standard product or mouse driver feature already. But as far as I could see, two or more mouse pointers seem not to be supported up to now (except for special applications, where the second mouse pointer is available in that application only).

What I've found so far is EitherMouse, though I haven't tried that yet.

Another angle might be to be able to save a stack of locations for the pointing device cursor and be able to switch among them easily, say via some hotkeys.

One use case I have in mind is for switching between applications on different displays. Say there's a video being displayed on one display and an editor open on another -- if one is taking notes and navigating the video, moving the pointer can quickly become tiresome (at least for yours truly ).

I'm afraid, I'm gonna top your "finally" by far – I just didn't manage to follow up on this earlier; sorry for the extremely late response to your tips.I just downloaded EitherMouse and played a little with it (though not under "real life conditions" yet) and I agree, this seems to work pretty well. Every now and then some applications appear to "go offline" for a few seconds (i.e. they don't react to being clicked or on keyboard input), but up to now they've all returned after a few seconds.

Thanks for the great suggestion, and sorry again for the long delay.

P.S. It works even with a third device; just tried a little external touch pad in addition to the main mouse and the track ball on the left .